What are the different branches of medicine, and what's it really like to be a medical student?
What’s the connection between psychology and psychiatry?
Should we be searching for cures, or working for prevention?
This course will be the ideal choice if you’re interested in the workings of the human body, or the human mind. You’ll find out about the main branches of medicine, and also be introduced to some of the insights we’ve gained through the science of psychology. (Please note that this course is classroom-based; we don’t need access to specialist medical facilities.)
Introduction
The course begins with an overview of the current status of both these disciplines, and helps you explore what would be involved in studying them, and the career paths they open up.
The heart and the lungs
Taking just one area of the body as an example, you’ll find out more about what makes it work, what can go wrong, and what we can do to make it work better; this unit includes testing blood pressure and using a stethoscope.
Neuroscience and the mind
Now you’ll be starting to think about the amazing human mind – and how it’s approached differently by doctors and psychologists. You’ll consider the workings of the nervous system. How is this area studied at university level?
Mental and physical testing
In order to help people, we have to understand them, and through some lively and stimulating exercises, you’ll explore ways in which we can test their mental and physical condition, and evaluate the results.
The personal factor
How do medical practitioners relate to patients, or psychologists to their clients? You’ll explore the importance of ‘the personal factor’, and practise taking a patient’s medical history. Your personal skills will be a key element in your future success.
Medical ethics
In this unit, you’ll consider the concept of this in medicine and psychology, and discuss the practical issues confronted by doctors and psychologists. Being able to think round the subject will really help you in applications for study in this area.
Issues in global health
Here you’ll be thinking hard about some of the challenges facing those who look after people’s health, mental and physical, around the world, and how they deal with them, also exploring how you would manage a public health crisis.
The future of medicine
Research is taking us in some exciting new directions, and here you’ll be exploring ways in which you might one day be working to understand, and help, the human body and the human mind, also the steps you might take to be in a position to do this.